Ode to Apple Pie

That last time I made apple pie was a solemn day at our house. I took it anxiously out of the oven to let it cool on the range top. It smelled and looked so good! Shortly afterward, we smelled burning pie. The burner underneath the pie dish had accidentally got turned on while we were making dinner. We looked down and saw red hot coils underneath my beautiful new apple pie. Panic coursed through our blood. We turned off the burner, but how bad was the damage?

Before we could think of what to do next, the glass pie dish shattered! Now there was pie oozing all over the stove top and smoking on the *hot* burner, surrounded by a ten foot radius of cubed glass particles. I think time stopped for a moment while we considered what had happened and what to do next. I think we were laughing: the pie was undoubtedly ruined, and before we could have time to mourn we had to prevent a kitchen fire. When we came to our senses, we poured the water from the tea kettle on the pie to stop the smoking before it escalated. What a mess we had to clean up! For Christmas that year I got a new pie dish from my mom, accompanied by specific instructions not to use on a range top!

Well it's been over a year since my apple pie fiasco, and I decided I had healed enough to try again. I made an identical apple pie last night to finally satisfy that craving (I did get some on my stove top trying to serve it up, but nothing as disastrous as last time). I think maybe the year of anticipation for sweet juicy pie filling and crumbly topping was a little too much because I didn't think it was very good. Perhaps I waited too long, or it was just never meant to be!